[منى هلال]

7

I met her in my maternal grandmother’s house for the first time in three months, maybe four. Sometimes I wonder how a mother could bear being away from her only daughter all those months.0

I miss her a lot and I love her very much. I don’t know why she doesn’t ask for me to visit her every Friday like my friend Nouhad’s mother does? She sees her once a week; sometimes more. Her mother takes her to the zoo to see the monkeys, the gazelles, the birds, the fish and Sony the cat. She called him Sony. She plays with him from outside his cage. One day he scratched her hand. I wish my mother would take me to see Sony and play with him, but I don’t want him to scratch my hand.0

Nouhad is like me; her parents are divorced and she lives with her father. She often tells me about the cruelty of her stepmother. Sometimes her father would beat her up if she doesn’t help her stepmother of if she answers her back.0

Thank God, my father doesn’t beat me up or allow anyone to beat me up. But he doesn’t know that he is the reason for my constant sadness. I wish he would bring my mother back to me. She is still not married; not like Nouhad’s mum.0

I love my mum and dad and I often wonder if they love me too! Well, if they really loved me, then why did they divorce and deprive me of both their love?0

I wish my mother would return to my father and have another brother and sister for me. I wish my stepmother would go to her parent’s house without her children. After all, they are my father’s children and he has the right keep them.0